It is called IndiGo, and it is a low-cost and organic-based off-grid photovoltaic panel, with integrated battery, which could make electricity more accessible even to destitute people who live in the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the Earth, such as areas rural areas of developing countries. Its operation, in fact, does not require expensive initial investments: IndiGo is recharged as it is used, with a prepaid card, such as a mobile phone.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Is called IndiGo, and is a low cost off grid photovoltaic panel ed organic based., with integrated battery, which could make electricity more accessible even to destitute people who live in the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the Earth, such as rural areas of developing countries. Its operation, in fact, does not require expensive initial investments: IndiGo recharges as it is used, with a prepaid card, such as a mobile phone.
This could be extremely useful for a large portion of the world population and therefore also prove to be a valid business opportunity for the British company. Eight19, a spin-off of the University of Cambridge, which has designed by IndiGo: according to the data of World Bank, in fact, they are beyond 1,6 billion people who do not have access to electricity, more than a fifth of the world population.
In most cases these people use fuels such as kerosene (polluting and harmful to health) to have lighting or to run small generators and other household appliances. Buying a photovoltaic panel or others off-grid photovoltaic systems (ie not connected to the grid and equipped with a battery to store electricity) on the other hand it would be impossible, given the high costs and conditions of poverty of the population.
IndiGo, on the other hand, is a low-cost panel, made with organic photovoltaics and with built-in battery that comes with a universal charger for mobile phones, one lampada a led and two free prepaid cards, valid for two days of electricity. IndiGo in fact works through top-ups similar to those of telephone traffic for mobile phones: you buy the prepaid card, scratch and communicate the code via text message and then receive a code to type on the appropriate keyboard of the device that will start to work for a certain period of time, after which it will have to be reloaded again (in this video, in English, the operation).
“Solar energy offers enormous benefits from an economic, social and health point of view to the poorest”, explains Steve Andrews, of Solar Aid, an NGO that is collaborating with Eight19 to spread IndiGo. In this way, in fact, even the most disadvantaged communities could have access to electricity. The project, however, is still up to date search for funding: by the end of the year the company announced a recapitalization of 10 million pounds to launch the product in the emerging market: for now IndiGo has started the diffusion of its product in Kenya, then it will be the turn of Zambia, Malwi and INdia, within a few months while full commercialization is expected in 2012.
